Illustration. (Photo: vienhuyethoc.vn)
Hanoi (VNA) – The Hanoi-based National Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion (NTHBT) had stored more than 5,500 umbilical cord blood units in its stem cell bank as of June 2022, many of which have been used in life-saving transplants for people with serious diseases.
Opened in April 2012, the bank is the top facility in Vietnam in extracting, storing, testing and multiplying stem cells extracted from cord blood samples. It is known for top-notch equipment and a team of skilled medical staff who have been trained on stem cell preservation in the world’s leading institutions.
More and more parents want to preserve stem cells extracted from their newborns’ cord blood. Most of the stem cell banks are in major cities, like Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, so non-resident expecting mothers normally had to travel far to use this service.
To meet the rising demand, the bank has launched a new service in which its staff can travel outside the capital city to collect cord blood samples of newborns.
The service is now available in the northern and northern central provinces, including Hai Duong, Hung Yen, Thai Binh, Nam Dinh, Bac Binh, Bac Giang, Vinh Phuc, Thai Nguyen, Quang Ninh, Thanh Hoa and Nghe An.
The bank has established cooperation with hospitals in Hai Phong and Phu Tho where cord blood units can be collected by trained medical workers of the hospitals before they are sent to the bank for processing and storing.
It plans to develop partnerships with more hospitals outside Hanoi to scale up this type of services in the region./.
